It has long been the practice in the medical art to brace the neck of a person suspected of having or known to have a neck or cervical spine injury. Often it is desirable to apply such a brace prior to moving the injured person from the scene of the accident causing the suspected or known injury. An emergency in-transit neck immobilizing brace, sandbags, board, or the like, applied at the scene of the accident is often and necessarily replaced by another brace, once the patient reaches the hospital and has gone through emergency examination and diagnostic procedures. In emergency use, certain basic characteristics are required for the brace which do not necessarily apply to the type of brace applied to the patient in the hospital environment.
While various attempts have been made in the past to provide a neck brace particularly suited and intended solely for emergency transport and the initial emergency treatment and examination of a patient often including X-ray examination, no such brace has come into widespread use. In what is believed to represent the closest prior art, there was described in a patent application filed Sept. 23, 1981, Ser. No. 304,961, entitled "Cervical Stabilizer Means" by Donald C. Truesdale, a brace having a frame structure which mounts on the shoulders of the patient and is secured by a pair of arm straps and a torso encircling belt. While the construction of the Truesdale brace is believed to represent a significant advance over the art preceding the invention of the Truesdale brace, the Truesdale brace, so far as applicant is knowledgable, has not gone into production and use. Among the characteristics of the Truesdale brace which the present invention brace seeks to avoid is the need for use of a torsion wrench to place the head in suspension. The present invention also seeks to avoid use of a single suspension for the head halter and use of a torso belt. Unlike the invention brace, the Truesdale brace also lacks means to prevent forward and back and lateral swinging of the head relative to the brace and lacks means for securing the brace to the crotch of the patient. Advantageously, the Truesdale brace does employ radioluscent frame material permitting X-ray examination.
The prior art related to body braces is otherwise voluminous. Therefore, only selected prior patents will be mentioned as being representative of approaches taken in the past. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,642,864, 3,605,736, 3,795,243, 4,194,501, and 4,250,874 represent shoulder-supported braces with adjustable means for placing the head in traction. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,507,273 and 4,161,946 represent other types of braces which rest on the body in a self-securing manner.
With all of the aforementioned prior art in mind, the present invention seeks to provide a brace primarily intended for use only during emergency transport of an individual suspected of having a neck injury, whether by air, sea, or land emergency transport. More specifically, the object of the invention is to provide such a brace which is light in weight, is easy and quick to install, is designed so as not to interfere with the initial treament through emergency care including possible X-ray and cardiology examinations, is stable on the body during transport, is designed to prevent forward and back and lateral movement of the head of the patient while held in traction, is comfortable to the patient during transport and is also designed to leave the patient mobile in the absence of leg injuries and in those situations in which the patient is able to walk once the patient's neck has been braced.
The foregoing and other objects will become apparent as the description proceeds.